Burpees & One-armed Thrusters

There are few movements like burpees in the CrossFit catalog that people either love or hate. Until recently I was on the hater side. But something shifted and now they’re tough, but not as bad. That puts them on somewhat neutral ground now — it only took nearly four years. 🙂

We had a great class – Coach Drea had her hands full. It was me, Ev, Sarah, Brent, Jenny, Todd, Adrienne (with Jayda), and Jake. Started with some couch stretch on the wall and then transitioned to another warm-up like yesterday… 3 rounds:

10 calories on the devil’s tricycle or rower (chose rower)

10 air squats to a med ball

10 push-ups

10 roll-to-candlesticks

Still working on roll to candlestick, but the rest was ok even though I was dreading the actual workout today. We went over the movements – burpees and dumbbell thrusters. And any time I have to make my left and right side work independently I get into trouble. I’m incredibly right side dominant so my left side might as well belong to another person. That was certainly the case today.

I grabbed a pair of 25# and got a couple of warm-ups in but my left arm was already giving me grief.

9 burpees / 6 thrusters (2 arms)

9 burpees / 7 thrusters (2 arms)

10 burpees / 5 thrusters (right arm only)

7 burpees / 5 thrusters (right)

8 burpees / 6 thrusters (right)

7 burpees / 6 thrusters (right)

8 burpees / 6 thrusters (right)

7 burpees / 5 thrusters (right)

7 burpees / 5 thrusters (right)

7 burpees / 5 thrusters (right)

Totals: 79 burpees / 56 thrusters = 135 total reps

Burpees were tiring, but I was able to get 5-7 reps in, take a breath, then do one or two more usually. Thrusters though… I felt like my left arm was going to clobber my head with a dumbbell and my arm bent in weird directions where it just didn’t feel safe.

I need to do something to retrain that left arm (and leg) to work normally again. Not sure why they’re that out of whack, but hey – why shouldn’t they be?

It’s funny to look at how far I’ve come as an athlete. I’m stronger, faster, and have a hell of a lot more flexibility and endurance than I’ve ever had in my adult life. And I have many, many things left to work on. That’s the beauty of crossfit in a nutshell. There’s always something to work on.